6.48 Aged to Perfection

#sims3challenge #sims3legacy #sims3story #thesims3

(Author's note: I posted yesterday too. If you think you might have missed one, take a look.)

Andria was baking again, and we all know what that means.



This time, the birthday part was for Winston.

Andria tried a new recipe this time -- angel food cake. Light, fluffy, and burning with its own personal flame.



"Victoria! You did your hair!" Abby called as she arrived. "By the way, do you know your stereo is broken?"

"I am a lean, mean, dancing machine," Winston crowed.



Winston was the most social of the Sample kids. The invitation list for his party was long and filled with sims of all ages. Dylan and Andria had never even seen some of the guests -- they were pretty sure at least one was a stranger who wandered in off the street.



"Happy birthday to you...!" everyone sang.







"Let's eat cake!" Winston ordered.



"Let me serve," Andria said. "I don't want anyone to get burned."

She laid out a flaming slice for everyone. 

"The cake is on fire!" Mason James shouted. "I've got to get a picture of this!"

Guests crowded to the table



And spilled out into the living room.



Winston ended up giving his seat to someone else and eating in the middle of the action.



"Hi, Edmund," Judith said.

"Urk," Edmund answered.



Joy, standing right behind Judith, shouted, "I think the cake is burning a hole in the table!"

Andria dashed in to put out the flames, and Edmund sneaked away in the distraction.



Everyone partied until Dylan kicked them out so that he could sleep, and everyone was talking about the party the next day at school.

Winston couldn't have been happier.

Sawyer was less impressed. The party was far too loud and rowdy for him to handle. As soon as the birthday singing was done, he escaped to the tech den and closed the door. Instead, he challenged Emily to a game of online chess.

And he won.



Then he wrapped up his slice of cake and slipped out the door to return home,

Where he ate it on the back deck in the falling snow.

Sometimes Sawyer didn't even make sense to Sawyer.

Andria was experimenting with some magic not directly related to nature. She spent an entire afternoon turning random objects to gold.

Some of the less appropriate ones, she changed back later,



But she left a few as they were. The golden fire hydrant was an answer to the dream Connery never knew he had.



One evening, Andria had plans for Edmund. "You've taken the most interest in advanced magic," she told him. "I wanted to show you more of the fae world."

"There's more?" Edmund asked.

"So much more," Andria told him.

She took him along a path through the wilderness, past Castle Marmalade, and down a steep slope to a secluded beach.

"Where are we?"

"A haven for pureblood fae," Andria said. "Those of us who never adapted to humans tend to live around here. It's a powerful place."

"There are other fae around here?" Edmund said. "I don't see anyone."

"The purebloods come out when they feel like it."



She shifted to her natural form. "Here. I want to teach you something."



"Wow! What are you doing?"



"Peeking into your future! Now hush."





"Huh," said Edmund. "I'll keep an eye out."

"Sometimes they're more useful," Andria admitted. "Now you try."

"Me?"

"Sure. You're more powerful than I am. I know you can do it."

"OK. Here goes."





"Whoa," Andria said. "Set it down."

"What did I do?" Edmund asked, panicked.

"I just saw something really embarrassing. Let's try this another time."



Connery still wandered back and forth across the street between his families.



I was a good life for an old dog.



Connery also loved music. He was delighted by the broken stereo. It was perfect to howl with.



This began a special bond with Winston, who thought Connery's singing was fabulous.



Now that she was off the book, Victoria was a lot more relaxed.



She almost had her grades back to where they were before she skipped.



Winston was rocking his new high school style.



He was able to advance to private instruction in dance.





When he was home, it was hard to pull Winston out of the kitchen. Now he was tall enough to work with adult-sized appliances, and there was so much to explore.

He already kept the family in fantastic waffles, and his latest experiment with spices in the mac and cheese made a familiar old dish exotic and new.

Andria didn't seem to mind sharing the kitchen spotlight. She had plenty of advanced baking to focus on.

This time it was for a landmark in Dylan's life.


Dylan didn't mind growing old. It had a certain dignity to it. But a family party just didn't suit his mood. Instead he chose to ring in his Elderhood at a wine tasting at Avalon Nectary. Dylan's friend Fawn Rockwell, the owner of the nectary, was only too happy to share the space with him. Andria's friend Manu took time off from the Consignment Shop to join them.

Dylan had no regrets.



As he blew out the candles, he could feel only contentment and pride over the art he had created and the family he'd helped to build.











*



He was ready to step into the next stage of life.





Andria's cake was a big hit with the wine and cheese crowd.



Conversation was warm and jolly.



"Don't think I'm going to put up with excuses about how you're too old and feeble to do the dishes," Andria warned.

"I wouldn't dream of it, my lady," Dylan assured her.



Afterward, Andria had a nice conversation with Stanley Marmalade's fiancé Jody, who was launching a new career as a magician.



Then came the moment Dylan had been waiting for.



"I call this Chatau Sample Mead," Dylan said. "All indications are that it should be the best nectar I have ever produced.

"Here," said the receptionist, "Let me get a picture before we taste it!"



"I just know it will be amazing!"



"I certainly hope so," Andria said, trying to keep her voice positive.. Clearly this woman wasn't familiar with Dylan's previous nectar.



She took a deep breath and sipped.



At first, she couldn't speak.

"Tell me what you think," Dylan said anxiously. "Be honest. I mean really honest. I have to know so that I can improve the recipe."

"This is amazing!" Andria exclaimed. "And I mean it!"



It was the first truly good bottle of nectar Dylan had never made. And it wasn't just good, it was like liquid pleasure all the way down.

"You finally got it right," Andria said.

Dylan smiled. "It's about time."

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It was a nice treat for Dylan to serve some of his nectar and it NOT cause nauseated moodlets! Woot!

I'm so in love with all of Gen 7! I have loved previous generations of kids, but this batch as a whole is the shining star of the legacy so far. They all look different and interesting, and they all have fascinating personalities. I'd be delighted with any of them as heir. What I'm distraught about is that I don't have enough household space for everyone to stick around to pursue LTWs. Somebody is going to have to leave shortly after adulthood. This makes me want to cry.

Annnd, Winston's fourth trait totally rocks my concept for where his character is going. He rolled Natural Born Performer. It meshes perfectly with his personality. But I had intended to let his Natural Cook trait guide his career path and have him open a restaurant. With both Athletic and Natural Born Performer, though, he almost has to be an acrobat.

Sadly, Andria didn't actually bake the angel food cake. That requires maxxed cooking, and she's at level 9. It takes a LOT of cooking to get from level 9 to level 10, and despite the screen time it gets in this legacy, it's not a LTW-grade skill of hers. Edmund got a chance card at The Round Table while he was on his date with Judith. Somebody spilled wine on his shirt, and he got an entire cake as compensation from the embarrassed waitstaff. I decided to use that instead of a birthday cake because, quite frankly, I am sick to death of the same two birthday cakes. I am SO happy Sims 4 make all cakes usable as birthday cakes.

Wow, the pic of Judith talking to Edmund in the kitchen doorway is captivating. I'm not sure I realized until this moment what an attractive sim she is. She's a service sim -- former newspaper girl who I moved into town as the foster daughter of the schoolteacher. I have NRaas set to breed my service and role sims by combining the genes of two randomly-selected sims from either the town or my sim bin; that seemed like the only way to avoid drowning in Face One.  Her skintone and eyes tell me that one of her parents was a Marmalade from the Sweetest of Dreams Wishacy. Too bad that challenge seems to have died, and just when Hunter married the patroness and had two adorable toddlers. Ah well.

ONE MORE POST.